Automatic transmission locking mechanism for parking

Abstract

An automatic transmission locking mechanism including a lever rotatively interlocked with a manual shift lever, a rod adapted to be advanced or retracted by the lever, a parking gear, a pawl with a detent having a detent to be engaged with the parking gear, a cam mounted on the rod for pushing up the pawl in shifting the manual shift lever to the parking position, a bracket on which the cam runs and a spring for releasing the pawl from the parking gear and for retaining the pawl at the released position, wherein the pawl is rotatably supported on a shaft of a reduced length and the spring is disposed near the free end of the pawl within a plane in which the pawl is turned on the shaft and thereby the locking mechanism is formed in a compact construction and is suitably applicable to a front-engine front-drive vehicle.

We claim: 
     
       1. Parking brake structure for an automatic transmission mechanism comprising a parking gear rotatably mounted on a driven shaft, a pivot shaft having a circumferential groove at the surface and disposed in a hole provided with a stationary member to position in parallel with the driven shaft of said parking gear, a pawl element having one end with a hole disposed in a slot provided with the stationary member and pivotally mounted on said pivot shaft by the pivot shaft disposed in a hole of the pawl element between a locked position in which said parking gear is locked and a released position in which said parking gear is released, a torsion coil spring means positioned within an oscillating plane in which the pawl element pivots to urge the pawl element toward the released position, a clamp member having one end rigidly secured to the stationary member and the other end provided with a bight portion into which said pivot shaft interfit through its groove, a rod member movably mounted in the reciprocating direction perpendicular to the oscillating plane of said pawl element and a cam member secured to the end of said rod member to each pivot said pawl element toward the locked position and released position in combination with the reciprocating movement of said rod member. 
     
     
       2. Parking brake structure for an automatic transmission mechanism as set forth in claim 1 wherein the clamp member is rigidly secured at the end portion opposite to the connecting portion to the stationary member by means of a screw member.